Manipulative customer

[fission_designs]

I have this customer who prior to placing an order the design brief was discussed and agreed upon word for word. 

I offered him unlimited revisions as far as color change was concerned but made it very clear that any substantial design change after the design has been made to there requirement will cost extra. All of the terms including what was being designed was agreed upon and an offer was sent. 

once the design was delivered they praised the work and then asked for additional design which was not in the scope of the agreed design as discussed prior to placing an order. 

Now the customer is not cooperating with paying for the extra work and has been disregarding the terms agreed upon . 

not only that the customer has threatened to leave damaging reviews if the revisions are not done while what they require is not a revision but extra work. They have been lying and manipulating every thing that was agreed upon. 

Can some one please tell me what to do here?

I have reached out to customer support but no solution. 

All I need now is to end this order by sending in a cancel order request based off the fact that they are requesting more work that was not in the original design scope and have it not effect my order completion stats. 

 

[newsmike]

You have to choose the lesser of 2 evils. Either you cancel, work for free and yes they will steal your work and use it, all while dinging your metrics. Or refuse to cancel, let them leave the bad review, and you get to respond nicely for all to see. "Buyer threatened me with bad review to get additional work which was not in our discussions.  I offered to send a gig extra, but they persisted. I delivered great work, on time and as described. But I do not feel it appropriate to be bullied into working for free. Avoid this buyer."

My advice is always, if you did quality work, don't be bullied, take the ding, and call them out if they do. Every product or service has some bad reviews from abusive customers, except for those sellers who cave in and allow themselves to be bullied into cancelling out of fear after working hard.  

 

Edited June 30, 2022 by newsmike

[fission_designs]

Mike, APPRECIATE YOU MAN !!

I have never been so frustrated with someone like I have with this client.

Thank you for the advice. I needed that more than words do justice.

Again... THANK YOU!

[fission_designs]

and please know because you have eased my troubled mind, and you have the ''GRAND MASTER'' title

I will surely be coming back to you for more clear cut advices 🙂 

 

[newsmike]

3 minutes ago, fission_designs said:

and please know because you have eased my troubled mind, and you have the ''GRAND MASTER'' title

I will surely be coming back to you for more clear cut advices 🙂 

 

Glad to help, welcome. 

[Alex.M]

3 hours ago, fission_designs said:

I offered him unlimited revisions

This jumped straight into my eyes ... with unlimited revisions you will be stuck with  'lifetime friends' here on fiverr , don't do this in the future

  

3 hours ago, fission_designs said:

I have reached out to customer support but no solution. 

 

Well there's no solution in this case , all you can do is ask them to cancel the order without affecting your account , it's not CS fault that your buyer went rogue ... This is only if you want to cancel the order ... In all cases support won't be able to ' accept ' the delivery on behalf of your buyer .

Also don't redeliver the files without an actual revision , delivering the same files over again in case he's requesting revisions might result in a warning from CS at some point .

[fission_designs]

ask who to cancel the order? the client ?

 

how do u cancel the order without it effecting your order completion stats ? 

[fission_designs]

41 minutes ago, cre8iveartwork said:

This jumped straight into my eyes ... with unlimited revisions you will be stuck with 'lifetime friends' here on fiverr , don't do this in the future

  

Well there's no solution in this case , all you can do is ask them to cancel the order without affecting your account , it's not CS fault that your buyer went rogue ... This is only if you want to cancel the order ... In all cases support won't be able to ' accept ' the delivery on behalf of your buyer .

Also don't redeliver the files without an actual revision , delivering the same files over again in case he's requesting revisions might result in a warning from CS at some point .

actually as the client is asking for extra work which he is not willing to pay for... 

he sent in his first revision request and I sent the same design back that initially was delivered before he asked for extra work and said the following

[Alex.M]

1 hour ago, fission_designs said:

ask who to cancel the order? the client ?

 

I was just telling you above... you said that you already contacted support , you can ask support to do that. '' 

Second mistake ... '' As I have said multiple times , You need extra work done you need to pay for it. You are NOT going to bully me in to doing free work for you. do you understand me friend '  ''  I would also want to cancel the order as a buyer if someone would send me such aggressive messages 

[anniejenkinson]

I think your message to the buyer was rude and unprofessional, and I wouldn't be surprised if your account takes a hit in some way. You certainly would never achieve Top-Rated Seller with that kind of message leaving your account (if you aspire to TRS, of course). You are a Level 2 Seller; you've just gone and blighted your chance of TRS. 😞

There is no justification for sending messages that are so impolite. Remain professional:

'I'm so sorry to hear you are not happy with my delivery of (X). My aim is always to achieve a satisfactory delivery for every buyer, and as you know, my product offers unlimited revisions on color changes. However, what you are requesting is a marked design variation--not a color change--and is not included in revisions. It appears we cannot reach a resolution, sadly. Please know that I am truly disappointed but that I did input (X) hours on the designs and cannot revise designs free of charge. I feel I delivered a professional job, to specification. I shall request a cancellation for you via Customer Support, but please be aware that you must delete the work I have provided and not use it in any regard since you will receive a refund. I wish you the very best.'

 

Edited July 1, 2022 by anniejenkinson
Oh, the usual sneaky typo. There's always one. Or two. But it is 2 a.m.

[az_design1]

9 hours ago, fission_designs said:

Mike, APPRECIATE YOU MAN !!

I have never been so frustrated with someone like I have with this client.

Thank you for the advice. I needed that more than words do justice.

Again... THANK YOU!

If I were in you shoes I'd do as he/she pleases but would give him a bad review and block him.

[animie_video]

@anniejenkinsonYou are so right, but if we see this from his perspective, you never know that how much torture client had client given him until he said that. I am not saying that this behavior is right, but Fiverr should understand that buyer could be wrong too sometimes. In any case, I am not sure why the TRS badge isn't going to be easy for him. 

[psykkopatte]

"Unlimited revisions", this is normal that buyer takes advantage of this.....

[smashradio]

On 6/30/2022 at 5:13 PM, fission_designs said:

Mike, APPRECIATE YOU MAN !!

I have never been so frustrated with someone like I have with this client.

Thank you for the advice. I needed that more than words do justice.

Again... THANK YOU!

I can only say I fully agree with what @newsmike said. 

I had this happen to me once. I chose the review and refused to cancel. Haven't regretted it for a second. Just be careful: the buyer might also leave negative, private feedback to Fiverr. If you have few buyers, it can cause a considerable drop in your buyer satisfaction rate. Just something to be aware of. If you have loads of happy buyers, I wouldn't worry about this, but it can certainly hurt your business way more than a public, negative review ever can. 

Here's mine: 

I wear it with pride. 

Regarding your communication to the buyer: it's rude and unprofessional. 

You could have said: 

"Thank you for your requests. I'm not available for pro-bono work at this time. If you wish additional designs, I'd be happy to consider your request and send the appropriate order extra. However, I won't tolerate bullying or threats made against me or my business here on Fiverr. If you persist, I'll be forced to reach out to customer support and refuse any future projects from you. I respectfully would like to refer you to the terms of services you agreed upon when signing up for an account on Fiverr – specifically the part about Inappropriate Behavior & Language: 
"Communication on Fiverr should be friendly, constructive, and professional. Fiverr condemns bullying, harassment, and hate speech towards others. " 

More information can be found in the Terms of Service: https://www.fiverr.com/terms_of_service"

 

Edited July 1, 2022 by smashradio

[anniejenkinson]

On 7/1/2022 at 4:55 AM, animie_video said:

@anniejenkinsonYou are so right, but if we see this from his perspective, you never know that how much torture client had client given him until he said that. I am not saying that this behavior is right, but Fiverr should understand that buyer could be wrong too sometimes. In any case, I am not sure why the TRS badge isn't going to be easy for him. 

All sellers get a certain amount of torture from clients. We don't all explode at the buyer. 🙂

It's down to us to keep our tempers in check and to make the point wthout being rude and to explain in depth why we cannot help further. If we are rude, who do we hurt but ourselves? It's pointless.

It can really backfire on you. So, the seller's injured their future here.

The TRS badge wont be easy since communications are taken into account when deciding which Level-2 sellers to promote to TRS. It's not all based on metrics; it's a decision by Fiverr after looking at everything the sellers offers, including communications.

Fiverr won't promote someone who cannot control their temper in responses to buyers. I perceive this is often why some sellers complain they're reached the metrics to become a TRS but never achieve it.

It's likely (in part, not wholly) because their communications are sub-standard, abrupt, and impolite.

Edited July 5, 2022 by anniejenkinson

[animie_video]

@anniejenkinsonthank you for your detailed response, now I get it that why it is necessary to communicate with great nerves and how clients can easily manipulate easily to lose our TRS badge. Thankfully, my 99/100 replies are written with cool-head, the one which is eft is also not aggressive but I can't say it's calm every time.